


Liberation

by NeroDragonfucker



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Borderlands 2, F/F, Femslash, angel lives AU, borderlands the pre sequel, gaigel, gaingel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-12 07:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5658127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeroDragonfucker/pseuds/NeroDragonfucker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angel finds herself experiencing the one thing she never thought she would taste again; Freedom. After her life is saved by new friends and allies, Angel struggles to find herself again after a decade of slavery, and Gaige is here to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How It Came to Be

Gaige sprinted to Zed’s clinic, tears in her eyes, while Axton and Maya attempted to clear a path for her in the sea of confused pedestrians. Krieg was beside her, holding someone’s limp body in his arms. She ignored questions from Crimson Raiders about what happened at the Bunker, unable to take her eyes off the wounded, lithe form in Krieg’s hands.

“Hold on” she whispered. “Just hold on, princess. Please…” the group burst into the Clinic, where Doctor Zed was just about to slice into a patient. He took a quick glance at the situation at hand, tossed his current patient onto the floor, and took Angel out of Krieg’s hands.

“Good lord, what the hell happened out there? And who is this?” he scratched his head before looking closer, at Angel’s sickly pale skin, and the veins of purple eridium poisoning spreading across it. He looked back up at Maya. “Ya’ll better go get Tannis for this...we’ll need to get started right away.”

 

**About a Week Earlier**

 

   Before Gaige ever knew who or what Angel was, she was merely a helpful AI, and a fascinating one at that. Gaige was always meaning to ask the mysterious voice that possessed the Vault Hunter’s ECHO devices from time to time more about it; who created it, where was it located, how did it come to have such a high degree of sentience. As a robotic engineer she had always been fascinated by the concept of Artificial Intelligence, though most of the ones she was used to dealing with were rudimentary at best. She couldn’t even give Deathtrap the ability to speak, but that was a homemade job. With the right tools and a few more years of experience under her belt, she probably could’ve made wonders.

   When Angel was revealed to be a traitor, Gaige couldn’t believe it. She refused to believe it. Even while the others had sworn to never forgive her, Gaige still insisted that there must be more to the story; And it turned out there was. Eventually, Gaige began to speak more with Angel when she could, though the threat of Jack discovering that they were talking always hung over their conversations. They always had to keep things brief, which was unfortunate, as Gaige was always hungry for more information about her.

   One night, in the Crimson Raiders control room, after everyone else had gone to sleep, Gaige sneaked in and activated the control hub, tuning it into Angel’s frequency. The AI’s visual representation, a gorgeous, mysterious young woman standing in a blank white room, popped up on the screens.

“Ah...hello again Gaige. Isn’t it a bit late to talk?” Angel asked. Gaige rested her elbows on the holomap table.

“Well, I thought this way it would be less likely for Jack to find out we were talking. Even nightmarish megalomaniacal overlords have to sleep sometime, right?” The AI gave a soft smile at that.

 “I must say, Mechroman-” Gaige held up a finger.

“Please, Call me Gaige. Mechromancer is just a job title.” The AI smiled again.

“Right then, Gaige, I always look forward to our chats. You seem so interested in me. Everyone else seems to take my presence for granted, like I’m nothing out of the ordinary.” Gaige scoffed.

“Well, the rest of them aren’t robotic engineers, for starters. I understand how cool your existence is.” The AI stayed silent for a long while at that.

“I’m sure if you knew more, you wouldn’t think it was very ‘cool’.” Gaige hated when she dropped cryptic hints like that.

“Well then tell me more. See if I think it’s cool or not! I don’t think too many things are uncool. Fascism, Tediore guns, how Krieg’s breath smells in the morning. Those are uncool. So come on, try me” The AI stayed silent again, as if considering humoring the girl, but then decided against it.

“I’m sorry, this line is still at risk...I’ll...have to cut this conversation short” Before Gaige could respond, Angel cut her off. She grumbled and went back to bed.

When the Bunker assault started, her head wasn’t quite in it. She should have been laughing with glee while she eviscerated Hyperion loaders and blew Engineers into bloody chunks. Instead she was thinking about Angel. What she had to hide from them. It wasn’t Hyperion related stuff, it was something else. Something more. When they finally reached Control Core Angel, she found more than she wanted.

“You’ll have to kill me” said Angel, as the Vault Hunters stood, staring at the figure suspended by tubes, luminous wings spreading behind her back, sitting in the middle of the room. Gaige looked on, horrified. Angel wasn’t Jack’s AI. She was his slave. His daughter. She wanted to throw up, even more than when she had seen Salvador’s 4 ½ nipple. As the other Vault Hunters, new and old, clashed with Jack’s security while the dictator screamed at them on the vid screens, Gaige walked up to Angel, staring up at her.

“This is what you couldn’t tell me…” she muttered. The girl, who didn’t look much older than her, stared at her sadly, eyes full of pain.

“Yes...I’m...I’m sorry, but it’s the only way” Gaige stepped back in alarm as she screamed when Axton shot one of the Eridium pumps keeping her alive. Gaige looked at him, startled. 

“Ax, stop that!” The Commando looked confused before he got bum rushed by a loader. Gaige looked back at Angel, whose breathing had grown labored, face twisted in pain. “C’mon...there must be another way, right?! Another way to like, stop Jack?” The Mechromancer’s mind raced, but came up blank. Angel still stared at her with that sad gaze.

“Gaige, I know you don’t like it but...I’m sure you like the thought of the Warrior awakening even less...” Gaige returned that gaze. It’s true, she didn’t particularly want an ancient living Eridian weapon wreaking havoc on Pandora. But she also didn’t want this poor girl to die in pain, having lived most of her life as a slave to her own, twisted father. There had to be a way to save her. Before she could think of much else, Roland had shot the last Eridium injector and Angel fell to the ground, said her last, defiant words, and slumped against the wall. After Roland declared her dead, she rushed forward to check. She took out a med hypo and jammed it into her neck in vain, tears in her eyes. She barely noticed the events that followed, Jack shooting Roland and kidnapping Lilith, who teleported them all away, Gaige still clutching Angel’s body. She felt a pulse, faint but there, and her eyes widened.

Those were the events that brought her now, to this moment, looking on as Tannis and Zed shoved more tubes into her body, Tannis speaking at a mile a minute as Zed followed her instructions best she could. Angel’s siren tattoos were already  fading away with her life. Gaige clutched at Maya, who looked down, her own face etched with shock and sadness.

“They’re trying their best, Gaige...only time will tell.” Gaige was sure the siren was shaken, seeing one of her kind dying before her and another one in the hands of a monster. She could only imagine how that felt. After about 3 hours, the doctors wiped their brows, Tannis removing her mask and turning to Gaige.

“We’ve managed to give her enough Eridium that her system won’t shut down. She will stay in a comatose state...likely forever.” She walked forward and hesitantly put a hand on Gaige’s shoulder. “I’m...well I guess I’m Sorry” She walked out, looking at her hands while Zed sat down, breathing heavily. Gaige walked up sitting down next to Angel. Her tattoos were gone, but her chest was slowly moving up and down, an oxygen mask affixed over her face. She simply slumped down and sobbed softly. Maya and Zed left her to it.

Eventually, she fell asleep there, face still wet with tears. Zed closed up his clinic, opting not to wake her, and headed to bed himself. Gaige was eventually awoken by a soft, purple glow. She glanced up and saw a strange figure standing in the middle of the room, spindly, inhuman, its face, if it had one, covered by a featureless mask. The being walked up and she instinctively went for her gun.

“S-stop! No closer!” her aim was shaky, but the creature waved its hand, lowering her arm.

“Do not be alarmed. I am here to help. I am here to save her life” it said in a calm, relaxing voice. Gaige stared, watching as the creature put a hand on Angel’s stomach, the Eridium in her system draining out around its thin, ethereal arm. Her skin gained a more natural color, as opposed to the purplish tinge it had before. Her breaths became deeper, eyes fluttering a bit. Gaige watched in amazement as the creature finished its work. “She will awake soon. How soon I do not know. Her body still has much healing to go through. But the worst is over.” Gaige looked at the being.

“I...I don’t know what to say...thank you.” The being held up its hand. silencing her.

“She will be important, as will you, in coming events.” then it disappeared, leaving no trace it was ever there. Gaige fell asleep soon afterwards, and had to wonder if it was all some strange dream.


	2. A New Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel wakes up to find herself free, and Gaige makes sure to keep it that way.

 When Angel finally woke up from her coma, it was all over. Handsome Jack was dead, the Warrior had been vanquished, and the Crimson Raiders had triumphed over the Hyperion war machine. And while she never got to see any of that in person, she did get a very enthusiastic, not very detail oriented rundown of events from Gaige, who had rushed into Zed’s clinic the moment she heard Angel woke up, knocking the poor doc on his ass.

Zed found Angel’s recovery to be a miracle, which it probably was. Gaige had kept her promise to the mysterious being, not telling a soul about it, not even Angel. As Gaige used surgical tools to reenact the battle of the Vault, Angel found herself smiling. When she woke up, she was confused. She was supposed to be dead. In fact, at first she was disappointed that she wasn’t, afraid that Jack had somehow brought her back to life. But when she looked around at the filthy Clinic she woke up in, she knew this was no Hyperion surgical facility. She had looked down at her arm, in a daze, to discover that her tattoos had faded to marks on her skin, no longer glowing with mystical light. She found herself unable to summon her wings, or phase shift. Her heart had stopped, she had died, and whatever force that decided the Siren’s fates had given her power to the next Siren in line. Most of her kind would probably be heartbroken about losing their powers, but she held no fondness for them. Jack had used her powers for his own gain for a decade, and even before then she had inadvertently killed her mother. She was glad to be rid of them.

Gaige stopped in the middle of her story, right after slamming a half chewed pizza crust into a glass of water to simulate Mordecai and Brick’s barge plunging into the lava. “Hey, are you alright?” Angel blinked, hand going to her face. Tears trickled down her cheek. “I mean, don’t worry, they made it, obviously. Those two are ridiculously hard to kill.” Angel shook her head.

“No it’s not that...I don’t know why I’m crying” she began to shake. Gaige put down her storytelling instruments and got out of her chair.

“Should I get Zed? Are you hurting?” Angel found herself unable to answer for a few moments as she looked down at her hands, no tubes sticking out of them, no tattoos burned into her skin. Gaige put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey...c'mon. I can stop the story if you want." The former siren looked up. She was smiling through her tears.

"I'm crying because I'm free...I'm free." The realization had hit her all at once. She hadn't really thought about it until now, everyone was too busy rushing around in the aftermath of the Warrior's awakening. Now that she was sitting here, with a few moments for it to sink in, she was finally beginning to realize. Jack was dead. Jack was _dead._ Her nightmare was over. And she was alive. Overcome with emotion, she wrapped her arms around a very surprised Mechromancer. But Gaige certainly didn't mind.

"Hey. Hey I understand. I can't imagine what it was like, living through that." After the Warrior was defeated and Jack was going on that stupid rant, she was the one who had silenced him. She leaned in as he bled out to whisper a final taunt into his ear; "Angel is alive, and free." She was mighty satisfied with the mixture of surprise and rage that made its way onto his face, locked there forever by rigor mortis. Angel pulled back from the hug, wiping her eyes.

"I wouldn't wish it on anyone else...not even him." She sniffled, still smiling. "Anyway, sorry to interrupt your story. You were at the part where you dismantled a constructor with your bare hands, I think" Gaige got back to her story, peppering it with details that made her seem even cooler than she already was. Who cares if she didn't REALLY use her robot arm to punch the Warrior in the face? She totally conceivably could have. And the look on Angel's face was more than worth it. She found herself spending most of her time around her new friend, even letting a few missions drop to enjoy her company. Which is why it was a real bummer when her ECHO device lit up, telling her there was a mandatory meeting at Crimson Raider HQ. She sighed irritably.

"God dammit. Duty calls." She got out of her chair, tossing a few soaked pizza crusts in the waste receptacle. "You stay right where ya are, I'll finish my story later." She gave the girl another hug before walking out into the streets of Sanctuary, wondering what boring business would be on the table this time.

**Crimson Raider HQ**

"Absolutely not!" Gaige said louder than she'd meant to, slamming her fist on the table, accidentally spilling Salvador's drink. Lilith looked around, surprised. The youngest member of their ragtag band rarely participated in their meetings, mostly playing ECHO games or sharing stupid jokes with Axton. 

"Listen. I know you've been spending a lot of time around her, Gaige, but she's a danger. What if she's still connected to the Hyperion computer systems? They could, I don't know, hack into her mainframe or something and make her blow up or go berserk." Gaige ground her teeth.

"She doesn't have her Siren powers any more, Lil! So even IF that wasn't the most ill informed thing I've heard all day, all Hyperion would be doing was terrorizing the city with a sickly girl. And I'm pretty sure Brick could just hold her a few feet of the ground to neutralize that threat." 

"She's got to go, Gaige. I promise I'll find somewhere safe for her bu-" Gaige cut her off, the siren looking more irritable by the minute.

"Oh? And where would THAT be, Lilith? Hyperion is no doubt hunting her, trying to get whatever secrets Jack stashed in her brain..." she trailed off, thinking of something, of those awful ports that were surgically implanted into her head. Lilith sighed.

"Listen I know we like to pretend this is a democracy, but I think it's more like a dictatorship. I'm the one in charge now." Axton raised an eyebrow.

"Why's that? Was it in Roland's will? Or did you just kinda say that you were and hoped it was true." Lilith turned to him next, eyebrows raised.

"I mean, I don't see any other volunteers. Do you, soldier boy?" It was true. Most of the other vault hunters were unfit to lead, or too busy. Brick's stint as a bandit king had been successful, but had a high body count. Mostly of his own people. Mostly added to by himself. Mordecai had a baby bird to raise. Salvador was...Salvador. Zer0 was too busy being aloof and cool to lead anything. The former Dahl soldier sighed, leaning back against the wall.

"I'm not letting you kick her out, Lilith. I don't care if you're the president of the goddamn galaxy. Besides, I know a way to remove any hopes of Hyperion getting their hands on jack's secrets. It might get messy though..." After the meeting had dispersed, Maya stopped Gaige in the hallway. 

"Hey. I think it's really good how you're sticking up for Angel." She glanced around. "And don't judge Lil too hard. Her whole life recently got torn to shreds, and she's trying to pick up the pieces. Angel probably reminds her of what happened to Roland." Gaige huffed.

"That wasn't her fault at all. We're all victims of Jack here, we should be blaming him...or at least his rotting corpse." Maya gave a small smile.

"So, whats your plan to get Angel off Hyperion's radar?" Gaige grinned.

"I'm gonna tear those weird ports off her head...obviously not like, literally but you know." She added the last bit after seeing the alarm on Maya's face. That didn't go away.

"You sure you're up to that? Isn't that more a job for Zed? Or Tannis?" Gaige shook her head.

"Nah. Zed doesn't know as much about cybernetics as I do, and Tannis...well, I'm afraid she'd faint or something. It's gotta be me. I mean, I'll have Zed oversee it but I'm sure I can do it. After all I made myself this" she gave her robotic arm a pat. Maya frowned.

"Yeah, after cutting your own arm off." Gaige shrugged.

"Blah blah something about eggs and omelettes. Trust me, it'll work out." Gaige hoped that it would at least. She wasn't sure that her mysterious Watcher would step in again if she fucked it up. But she had to do it. She wanted Angel to be free of Hyperion for good. And this was the first step.

 

 


	3. Playing Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an effort to convince Lilith that Angel is no danger to Sanctuary, Gaige decides to remove the Hyperion info ports bolted into her head with a bit of invasive surgery. Meanwhile, Maya conspires to help young love bloom.

Angel was just starting to feel like she was ready to get up and about again when Gaige walked in and told her she needed yet another surgery. Angel looked dismayed. "This won't put me into a coma again, will it? That wasn't very fun. I'm still a little bit wobbly." Gaige shook her head.

"No, no, this won't be as invasive as the other one." Or involve a mysterious alien being, Gaige thought, but she didn't speak that thought. "Lilith was worried that those ports in your head had some kind of super secret Hyperion secrets or something that they would attack Sanctuary with." She ran a finger along the cold metal set into Angel's smooth flesh. She realized that her hand was lingering on the other girl's cheek and quickly withdrew her fingers, coughing. "So uh, yeah. I thought that you would want those things out too." Angel smirked.

"Absolutely." Having been cut off from human contact for about ten years (Except for Jack, but Angel didn't really think of him as human), Angel was unable to pick up on the telltale symptoms Gaige had been showing; laughing just a bit too hard at her jokes, leaning close when she was listening, a small blush playing across her face whenever Angel complimented her. Gaige was smitten. Even she probably didn't know it yet, but she would soon.

For now, though, there were more serious things to be done. Zed closed the clinic for the day, devoting his time to this delicate surgery. Gaige held Angel's hand as he put her under, then took her place at Zed's side. "Alright, Doc, these things are wired directly into her central nervous system, so I hope you didn't wake up with a case of the shakes today, or we might accidentally snip something very bad." She attached a scanner to her face, magnifying the area where steel was melded with flesh. The day was grueling, the heat of the clinic not helping things. It seemed to go on for days, with Gaige leading Zed's hand to where the machinery was melded with her nerve endings, and separating them with an incredibly accurate surgical tool Zed had gotten in exchange for a few high quality arms. As in the body part, not guns. That still weirded Gaige out a little.

Finally, after what seemed like years, they got the first port off. Gaige's jaw tightened as she looked at the red, raw skin that was beneath it. She played Jack's death through her head again, and thought he hadn't suffered enough. They worked tirelessly. The other three were a bit easier after getting over the first hurdle. Gaige's limbs ached, she had a headache, it felt like her eyes were about to pop, but as she and Zed removed the last port and put it on the tray with the others, she felt an updraft of relief and pride swell up in her chest. She gave Zed a weak high five before slumping back into a chair, watching Angel's rise and fall calmly in her sleep. A small smile played on her lips as she drifted off to sleep.

When Angel woke up, her first thought was that her head felt a bit tight, probably from the bandages wrapped around it. She looked around, blinking the blurriness from her eyes as her gaze settled on Gaige, wrapped in a blanket, slumped over in a chair right next to her hospital bed, snoring softly. Her gaze then went to the silvery, rounded ports, sitting in a grimy surgical tray. If she had the strength, she would smash them to bits. As it was, she simply glowered at them, and then turned back to Gaige. She leaned in. "Thank you" she whispered softly, kissing the other girl on the cheek before drifting off into unconsciousness .

####  Crimson Raiders HQ, A Day Later 

Gaige deposited the cleaned ports onto the table in the war room, crossing her arms, staring up at Lilith. "There. Got em out. Wasn't too big a deal." The siren picked one of them up, holding it up to the flickering lightbulb, its metallic surface catching the light. She gave a heavy sigh. 

"You obviously really like her, Gaige..." she glanced around at Brick and Mordecai before turning back to the Mechromancer. "...she can stay." Gaige gave a little, indulgent fist pump, going up to give Lilith a hug before running off to Zed's clinic to tell Angel the good news. After she left, Mordecai turned to Lilith. 

"You sure you wanna know what's on those data ports, Lil? I mean, what if there's some messed up stuff on there. This is Jack we're talking about after all." Brick nodded solemnly. 

"Yeah. Like nudes. Or pictures of him an the Sheriff makin out. Eugh." Lilith closed her hand around the data port.

"We gotta take that chance. Who knows what we could find in here. Maybe stuff about other Vaults. Stuff about Sirens..."

#### Zed's Clinic

Angel was just getting her bandages removed when Gaige came bursting through the door. "Angel! Angel!" She skidded to a halt in front of the girl, Zed's hand pausing over the bandages. "Lilith said you can stay!" Angel gave a wide grin, wider than Gaige had ever seen her give.

"That's great news. The Doctor says I'll be up and about later today. Maybe you could show me around?" Gaige's heart skipped a beat. Right now, showing Angel around sounded more fun than watching Deathtrap slice up bandits into mincemeat, and that was one of her favorite pastimes. Zed removed the bandages and Angel rubbed at the now pink, slightly raw scar tissue, still red around the edges. "I just wish I had something to wear." 

"W-well, I mean, most of my clothes are probably close to your size. I didn't bring much with me to Pandora but I'm sure I can scrounge something up." She ran back to the door. "Now don't move, I'll be right back!" she gave a wink and dashed off. Gaige ran to her quarters in the raiders HQ, digging into the small trunk that laid at the foot of her bed. Maya glanced up from her book on the opposite bunk, eyebrow raised.

"My, you seem excited. I mean, you're pretty excitable, but you seem particularly-" she was cut off as a denim skirt drifted onto her face. "Why are you digging through your old clothes?" 

"Angel is getting out of the hospital, and she doesn't have a THING to wear!" She held up a t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a popular underground punk band on Eden-6, tossing it onto the pile. "And we're, like, similar sizes so I thought I'd find some of my old stuff for her. There aren't many clothing stores around here after all." Maya dodged a pair of socks. 

"Aw, how kind of you." Maya, unlike Angel, could see the symptoms of infatuation plain as day in everything Gaige did. She had decided to support the young Mechromancer in any way she could. Because who else was she going to get advice from? Well, good advice anyway. As Gaige grabbed her bundle of clothes and dashed out the door, she returned to her book, sending a quick ECHO text to Moxxi. 'You busy? Wanna help me out with something?'.


	4. Let's Hit The Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gaige decides to show Angel around Sanctuary on what is most certainly NOT a date, no matter what Maya or Moxxie think.

"Stop fidgeting, DT!" Gaige leaned to keep herself in view of the mirror her robot was holding. "I don't wanna mess anything up!" The death dealing robot made a sound of apology, hovering as still as it could in the middle of the Crimson Raider's quarters. Gaige adjusted her hair to make it just unkempt enough to look good. She was wearing her favorite outfit, after running it through the wash a few times. Bullymong blood was very hard to get out of denim. Someone knocked on the door frame. Gaige turned to see Axton leaning against the wall.

"Getting ready for your date, huh?" he had his eyebrow raised, a cheeky little grin on his face. Sometimes he looked so punch able.

"Oh my GOD, Ax, it's not a date." Gaige adjusted her goggles, attempting to ignore the butterflies fluttering up a storm in her stomach. She really wanted to make sure Angel had a really good day, after all the shit she had been put through. "Just showing a friend around town...ya know?" Axton nodded slowly.

"Riiiiiiight...well lemme give you some dating advice-" Gaige let out a groan.

"it's not a date, Ax!" Though she desperately wished that it was. Wait, why did she think that? She shook her head, turning around. "Just tell me how I look ya ugly ape." Axton gave a thumbs up before going to his bunk and plopping down, opening up a magazine.

"Have fun kid." Gaige recalled Deathtrap and power walked down the stairs, bumping into Maya on the way down. 

"Ah, there you are. I was just coming to talk to you." The siren gave a small double take. "Wow, you washed your hair. Must really be looking forward to your dat-I mean, outing with Angel." Gaige felt a blush rising on her cheeks. Why on Pandora did everyone want to set her up with Angel? "Anyway, wanted to tell you that I rented out Moxxie's. I thought that walking into a loud, crowded place like that might freak Angel out a little. Plus it's basically the only place worth going to in town.

"Man...I...that's really cool of you Maya. How much did that cost?" Maya gave a small smirk as she remembered her short conversation with Moxxie.

"Oh, yes, the girl is clearly smitten. A one eyed Skag with cataracts could see that." The bartender wiped down a glass while she ignored some drunk guy slurring out confusing compliments. "But what do you expect ME to do about it? Even I admit my romantic history hasn't been very...well it included Handsome Jack and at least one cannibal bandit lady so-"

"Oh God, I'm not telling you to give Gaige advice. That would just end in disaster. No, I just want to you keep the bar empty for when she brings Angel in. The poor girl might get sensory overload if she walks into this place after years of isolation." Moxxie pushed the drunken customer off his stool when he got a little too close.

"Mmmmm, I dunno, hon. A whole day?" 

"Just think of it as helping something good blossom on this flaming garbage planet." Moxxie chuckled.

"Well, with such poetic words, how could I say no? Fine, they'll have the bar to themselves for a day...but I'm not giving Gaige any booze. We all remember the New Years incident."

Maya wiped the smirk off her face, looking back down at Gaige. "Oh, you know me. I have a way with words. So, just enjoy yourselves." Gaige gave the Siren a quick hug before bounding down the rest of the stairs, nearly sending Tannis toppling as she ran through the ground floor of the base.

Angel looked at herself in the grimy mirror Zed kept in his clinic. She was glad that she was finally going to escape the confines of the Clinic. Zed and Gaige had done their best to make sure she was comfortable, but that didn't change how grim her surroundings were. She adjusted the jacket Gaige had given her. It was slightly too big for her skinny frame, but it was warm and comfy. It also had a big cartoon skull on the back, which Angel thought was cute. Underneath she was wearing some of Gaige's donated clothing, as her stasis suit had been (thankfully) destroyed during surgery. She adjusted her hair, seeing a familiar head of red hair enter the clinic. She turned, a smile spreading across her face. Every time she saw Gaige, her heart felt like it was floating. 

Gaige's face lit up as well when she saw her friend. "Hey. Ready to go?". Angel nodded.

"Yeah. I wanna see the sky." Gaige took her by the arm and led her out into Sanctuary's town square, the city's power source pulsing in the center, looking like some sort of _avant garde_ sculpture. It was a clear day, clouds lazily drifting by above the pair, sending shadows over the town. The air was cool and crisp. Angel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. For so long, the only smell she had was the sterility of her control core, the slight tang of Eridium, and Jack's personal cologne from time to time. The various odors of Sanctuary were the best things she'd ever smelled. Her inner peace was interrupted by a loud, tinny voice.

"Helllllo there!" she looked down to see a familiar claptrap unit staring up at her. Gaige rolled her eyes. 

"Oh yeah, Angel, meet Claptrap. He's the town fool." 

"I prefer to think of myself as the town mascot!" Angel remembered all that Jack had put this poor unit through. She doubted he remembered her, but she still felt a pang of guilt. She bent down and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Claptrap." The robot looked taken aback, or as taken aback as you can look without a face.

"Wow! Your new friend is nice, Gaige! Most people call me mean names or throw garbage at me. I think we're gonna get along just fine!" The small robot rolled away, humming happily to himself. Gaige giggled.

"Looks like you already made one friend. Now I just hope you're alright with him bothering you all day." Angel stared after the little robot. She shook the unpleasant memories of Elpis away and turned back to Gaige.

"Well, lead the way, tour guide." Gaige showed her all the sights there were to see. Marcus' shop, Scooter's garage, Crazy Earl's place (she warned Angel to steer clear of him). After a while, she brought Angel to one of the town's edges. She stared down at the view. She could see the curvature of the planet. The rolling hills of the highlands, the snowy caps. She could even see the tortured landscape of the Eridium Blight in the distance. The pair sat on the edge of the city, legs dangling in the open air, listening to the low roar of the engines below them.

"So, whaddya think of the view?" Gaige watched the clouds drift by before turning to her companion, still staring out at the scenic vista before her.

"It's...beautiful. I never thought I would describe Pandora like that but..." her hand fingers brushed against Gaige's. "You know...there was a time where I would have jumped." Angel's throat tightened as she spoke. "Jack snuffed out any bit of hope that I had. I thought the only way I was ever gonna escape was death. I wanted to be free..." she turned to Gaige, tears glinting in her eyes. "Then you started talking to me. I remembered what it was like to laugh. Genuinely laugh. You didn't treat me like a thing, like everyone else did, no matter how good their intentions. You talked to me. I don't think I ever really thanked you enough. For saving me."

Gaige had trouble finding words. "I...I mean it was...Zed and Tannis who...who uh..." Gaige found herself getting lost in Angel's eyes. The former Siren smiled at her and wrapped her up in a hug.

"No, really. Thank you." Gaige's heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest and leap into the stratosphere. Angel smelled really nice. Did she always smell that nice? Why was Gaige noticing how nice she smelled. Her mind was going a mile a minute. She clumsily wrapped her arms around Angel, not breaking that hug until she was worried that she would start wobbling and topple to her doom. 

"You...uh...hey, we still gotta get lunch! Start you on your new food diet instead of processed Eridium. And no, I don't count whatever Zed was serving you." She got up and turned around so Angel wouldn't see that her face was a brighter red than her hair at this point. "Ever had pizza?"

#### A few hours later, in Moxxi's

There wasn't a sound in the bar except for the dull throb of the music, which Moxxi had mercifully turned down, and the laughter of the two girls sitting at the booth in the back. Krieg was playing bouncer, keeping everyone else out of the bar. Moxxi was at the counter, catching up on some reading while Gaige told Angel a few war stories. Several empty bottles of soda and a half eaten pizza between them.

"So we loaded Krieg into the catapult, it was his idea. Then we just tossed him over the wall, waited a few minutes, and he opened the door, covered in blood and screamed 'KNOCK KNOCK' at the top of his lungs." Angel giggled. "Oh, another story is the time Maya fell into a pit of Rakk droppings." Angel coughed up a bit of soda after taking an ill timed drink. She wasn't able to eat too much, as her system was still getting used to not having to survive on Eridium. The Watcher had rearranged her insides, but it wasn't an instant process. Though when she had taken her first bite of pizza, she thought she was going to melt. It was the best thing she'd ever tasted.

"You've had *cough* quite a few adventures. I look forward getting to know the rest of your friends." 

Gaige nodded, smiling. "Yeah...they're all pretty great." Angel took another sip of water, and Gaige found herself looking at the scars left by the data ports. "Do they hurt?"

Angel traced the still red skin. "Not much. It's more like a tingling...sometimes I get phantom sensations but otherwise no. Another thing I have to thank you for." 

Gaige took a chomp of pizza. She noticed Angel had a bit of sauce on the side of her mouth and leaned over. "Here, you got a little something right there." She wiped it off with her finger, and suddenly found herself very close to Angel's face, looking into her striking blue eyes. They both blinked at each other, locked in that position for a moment. In that moment, Gaige just wanted to lean a little closer. To brush her lips against the former Siren's. "...g-got it...." she sat back and downed an entire bottle of soda. By this point, Angel had figured out what was going on. What she was feeling. She was isolated, not oblivious. She had spent her time in the Core reading literature, anything she could get her hands on. It alleviated her crushing loneliness. She didn't like any of the great classics, they were always too dense or unpleasant. Instead, she found a fascination sweeping fantasy, larger than life heroes and villains, and trashy romance novels. So she knew exactly what was going on. 

"Hey...do you know how to dance?". angel got out of her seat, taking off her jacket. Gaige blinked.

"Uh...I mean...kinda. I've never really-" 

"Excuse me, Miss? Do you have any music that's good for dancing?" Angel called over to Moxxi politely. The bartender nodded and looked around for the data disc before popping it in to the speaker system. The heavy beats of the usual song faded away into an old dance hit. Angel took Gaige's hand and pulled her out of her seat. "Come on, dance with me."

Gaige left the pizza crust she was gnawing on nervously and took the empty dance floor with Angel. Most of Gaige's experiences with dancing were from punk concerts, if you wanted to get generous with your definition of dancing, and Angel had never really danced at all. Maybe a long time ago, but she had forgotten. Eventually, they found their rhythm. It was messy, a bit graceless, and would be highly embarrassing if anyone was watching, but they were alone. They simply danced, nearly tripping over each other more times than they could count. They laughed. Angel lost her footing and nearly took a spill, but Gaige's reflexes were quick and she caught her, hand around her waist. Time slowed down. The bar faded into a kaleidoscope of light and music. Gaige looked at Angel. Angel looked at Gaige. Their lips met as the song hit its crescendo. Gaige could stay there for an eternity. Eventually they broke apart and simply looked at each other, smiling. Words weren't needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that took so long to get out, but I ran into some writer's block there. Anyway here's the next installment. Things finally got gay.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, I'm actually proud of the first thing I put up on AO3. Nice. I'll write more chapters for this in the coming months whenever I can, and I can assure you it will Get Gay soon enough.


End file.
